Prosecuting, David Potter, told the court Jones had been drunk and attacked three youths in Grampian Way, Winsford, on April 16. Eye-witnesses saw him punch the boys in the face before launching an unprovoked assault on one of them, holding him in a headlock and punching him repeatedly in the face.

Mr Potter said: 'The boy offered no resistance. The other boys and neighbours who witnessed the incident told him to stop but he ignored them and kept hitting.'

Jones then held the boy in the headlock and rammed his head into a concrete post. When the boy tried to run away, Jones pulled his legs from under him, which caused the boy's head to hit the pavement. Jones told him: 'I'm not finished with you until you're dead.'

The boy was taken to Alder Hey Hospital when he began fitting following the attack. He had a brain haemorrhage and needed emergency surgery. He was on a ventilator under sedation, but is now making a steady recovery.

Defending, Gareth Roberts called the incident 'despicable', and said that it had been drink fuelled. He said: 'Sober, he is an amiable and polite young man, drunk he is something quite different.'

He told the court that Jones was thoroughly ashamed.

Sentencing, Stephen Clarke said Jones posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public and that if he had been an adult, he would be looking at six years in prison.